Helping New Teachers Learn as They Go

Hoping to place more fully qualified elementary teachers at the helm of classes, Cal State University officials today plan to launch a new form of on-the-job training for instructors.

The program, called CalStateTEACH, aims to help instructors with emergency teaching permits gain full credentials within 18 months without setting foot in a university lecture hall.

Instead, novice instructors will learn education theory and teaching methods by reading texts, being observed by Cal State faculty members, participating in Internet seminars and completing assignments in their own elementary school classrooms.

Cal State Fullerton, which traditionally educates scores of new teachers, will serve as one of five hubs for the program. From 100 to 200 emergency-credentialed instructors are expected to begin the alternative form of teacher training this fall through the Fullerton campus, program director Beverly Young said.

The program’s flexibility should serve as a draw to the 30,000 teachers in California who are already in classrooms but have not received training in pedagogy. A boom in teacher retirement and demand created by the popular class size reduction initiative have spawned a shortage of qualified teachers statewide.

“We’re working very hard to meet the needs of school districts while, at the same time, maintaining the high standards of teacher education of the traditional program,” said Young, a Fullerton education professor working in the chancellor’s office.

“The admission standards will be the same as the traditional program,” she added. “We’re telling the districts, ‘Just because you hire someone as an emergency-permitted teacher does not guarantee CSU agrees they should be a teacher.’ We’re meeting an emergency situation, but we’re not lowering standards.”

The program could particularly help fast-growing school districts in Santa Ana, Anaheim and Garden Grove, where administrators have hired dozens of emergency-permitted teachers. Of Orange County’s 22,300 teachers, more than 1,500 are working on emergency teaching credentials

Teachers with emergency credentials already possess a bachelor’s degree with course work in key subject areas and have passed a basic skills exam, but have not finished the required postgraduate studies and training.

“Often, we’re between a rock and a hard place and need a teacher in front of those students right this moment, so we hire someone without a credential,” lamented Supt. Al Mijares of the Santa Ana Unified School District, where about 200 teachers lack credentials. “A program like this, it’s critical for a district such as ours.”